The move to beef up security followed a meeting of the ruling Chinese Communist Party chaired by President Xi Jinping, indicating concerns among the top leadership over the rising violence in Xinjiang ahead of the anniversary of the July 5, 2009 riots in the Xinjiang capital Urumqi which left nearly 200 dead.

“There are deaths and injuries, but I don’t know the exact number. Police officers will send us the reports soon,” he said on Saturday, adding that the recent spate of attacks by Uyghurs in Xinjiang had stemmed from “radicalism.” [Source]

This appears to mark the first time Beijing has blamed a group in Syria and fits a common narrative of the government portraying Xinjiang’s violence as coming from abroad, such as Pakistan, and not due to homegrown anger.

[…] The Global Times, a tabloid owned by the Communist Party mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, said that some members of the East Turkestan faction had moved from Turkey into Syria.

“This Global Times reporter has recently exclusively learned from the Chinese anti-terrorism authorities that since 2012, some members of the ‘East Turkestan’ faction have entered Syria from Turkey, participated in extremist, religious and terrorist organizations within the Syrian opposition forces and fought against the Syrian army,” the newspaper said. [Source]